BOEHLERT APPLAUDS NOAA/DHS
EFFORT TO PROTECT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
WASHINGTON, D.C.. June 18, 2004
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert
(R-NY) today praised the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) for reaching an agreement that will
provide for the use of the NOAA All-Hazards Radio
System to inform the public about civil emergencies,
including chemical spills, missing child alerts, and
terrorist threats.
In a May 20, 2003 letter to DHS Secretary Tom Ridge,
Boehlert and then-Ranking Minority Member Ralph Hall
of Texas urged that the NOAA Weather Radio (NWR) receivers
be added as an emergency preparedness kit item and that
DHS consider promoting the system on the Departments
website network. We were recently briefed on the
NOAA Weather Radio system and its capability to get
warnings to the public for all hazards, including terrorist
attacks. We think NOAAs system should be expanded
to deal with homeland security, wrote Boehlert
and Hall. They noted that the NOAA weather radio transmissions
cover 95 percent of the population and about 13
percent of Americans currently own these receivers.
NOAAs weather radio network has been extremely
successful in alerting the public to natural disaster
threats and has saved countless lives, said Boehlert.
I applaud NOAA and DHS for implementing this innovative
program that will expand the function of the weather
radio network to disseminate critical information in
the event of a national security emergency. By capitalizing
on existing technology, we can further protect the American
people.
The Science Committee has closely examined ways in
which the NOAA system could be incorporated into our
nations homeland security operations. Boehlert
led the effort in Congress to educate Members and key
officials of the important homeland security function
that could be performed by the NWR network. In May 2003,
Boehlert and Hall held a press conference urging a partnership
between DHS and NOAA, such as the one that was announced
yesterday. Boehlert also arranged to have weather radios
provided to every Member of the Committee to further
educate them on the advanced notification technology.
The memorandum of agreement was signed by Admiral (ret.)
Conrad Lautenbacher, Undersecretary of Commerce for
Oceans and Atmosphere, and Frank Libutti, Undersecretary
of Homeland Security for Information Analysis and Infrastructure
Protection. The agreement will remain in effect for
five years.
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